Now, that's interesting! I tried a "measured" square in the OpenOffice equivalent of PowerPoint --- Presentation is what they call it. Unfortunately, an automatic rescaling for printing purposes took place.
I then went to the OpenOffice Draw program (MS Office has not had this module in the past but I think they are just now adding it.) Open Office shares grid settings for all its modules. I have all my OpenOffice settings in metric (centimeter, but I could have chosen millimeter). In Draw I created a 10.00 cm by 10.00 cm square, going by the program's object properties information, and then I printed it out. The printed square measured 9.95 cm horizontally and 10.03 cm vertically. My printer is an HP LaserJet 1200, driven via CUPS on my linux system. This is not a CAD system and I suppose that for an office system a 0.3 % to 0.5 % error is tolerable. In fact, I'm probably getting close to the level of uncertainty in my centimeter scale that I used to check it. Sure beats Microsoft (5.51 %), according to what Pat posted! Jim On Friday 01 July 2005 06:03, Pat Naughtin wrote: > Dear All, > > I know that this is a bit old but it shows a strange mindset that it is > quite comfortable redefining world standards on the fly. > > See: > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=189826 > for Microsoft's attitude to the metric system back in 1997. > > Has Microsoft changed their attitude to standards since then? > > By the way this reminds me of an even older riddle. > > Question: How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb? > > Answer: None, they simply redefine darkness as the new standard. > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)* > PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia > Phone 61 3 5241 2008 > > Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, > 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by going to > http://www.metricationmatters.com and clicking on 'Newsletter'. > > * Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the > Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual for writers, > editors and printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the > National Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified > Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric > Association. > > This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and > may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. > This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be > partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any > unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is > prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete > it from your system and notify the sender by return email. -- James R. Frysinger Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist Senior Member, IEEE http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: Physics Lab Manager, Lecturer Dept. of Physics and Astronomy University/College of Charleston 66 George Street Charleston, SC 29424 843.953.7644 (phone) 843.953.4824 (FAX) Home: 10 Captiva Row Charleston, SC 29407 843.225.0805
